France endured one of its most violent nights of unrest in recent years after largely peaceful anti-government protests on Saturday descended into rioting, leaving government buildings torched and one police officer and one protester dead, according to CNN.

Groups of young people looted shops and started fires as protests wound down, and police responded with tear gas and baton charges.

BBC reports that over half a million mainly peaceful protesters had demonstrated against rising living costs and dwindling public services before masked activists and vandals appeared.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said he has asked prefects to implement 'a number of partial curfews' in certain 'localised' urban areas to stop further disorder, with new measures in place from Monday night.

He attributed the violence to 'the ultra-left' and some criminal elements, while President Emmanuel Macron criticised 'unbridled violence' after 2,400 arrests were made across France, according to The Guardian's live coverage.

According to BBC, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez tried to hand in his resignation, but Macron instead asked him to examine how to make France's streets safer and bring the perpetrators to justice.

Nuñez has been accused of being ill-prepared and under-policed ahead of the scheduled protests, and lower house president Yaël Braun-Pivet wants an inquiry.

BBC reports an estimated 1,500 shops and businesses were looted and destroyed, that riot police fired tear gas and turned water cannon on crowds, and that France's interior ministry said about 1,000 police officers were injured on Saturday, seven of them seriously.

CNN's photographs show burning city halls in Limoges, damage to the state's official residence in Bordeaux, and debris-strewn streets in Marseille and Paris.

The press response has been polarising: France 24 reports headlines ranging from Le Figaro's 'Shame and anger' to L'Humanité's 'Social explosion', with Le Parisien declaring 'After the chaos, the anger'.

According to France 24, Der Spiegel argues the far-right frontrunner Marine Le Pen is positioning herself as the guarantor of public order, while El País says the unrest shows Macronism ablaze ahead of presidential elections in six months.

Macron and Lecornu blamed radical far-left groups, while Jean-Luc Mélenchon alleged government 'incompetence', BBC reports.

The Élysée faces unanswered questions, BBC notes: how rioters will be brought to account, how towns will be protected, how destroyed businesses will be compensated, and when dialogue with students and teachers will begin.

Authorities hope for respite during the school half-term break, but trade unions and the gilets jaunes movement have announced huge protests for 5 November, and France is holding its breath.

Macron's Sunday televised address, which called for national unity, was criticised in the French media for lacking concrete detail.